HAWTHORNE, Calif.- Hgen , a producer of clean hydrogen for the decarbonization of heavy industry , announced it has closed a $5 million seed funding round led by Seven Seven Six, with participation from Founders Fund and Fontinalis Partners. Hgen will use the funding to accelerate the commercial deployment of its technology at customer sites.
Approximately 100 million metric tons of fossil-derived hydrogen are produced annually for industrial and chemical processes. Founded in 2021, Hgen aims to decarbonize this over $100 billion market by using alkaline electrolyzers to produce clean hydrogen from water and electricity. Alkaline electrolyzers are one of the lowest cost electrolyzer technologies and are best suited to meet the cost targets for clean hydrogen.
Hgen has developed an alkaline electrolyser with 20 times higher volumetric power density than conventional alkaline electrolysers, allowing a system 20 times smaller to produce the same amount of hydrogen. This high power density is achieved by Hgen hydrogen generation cells that are 9% more efficient and 6 times thinner than standard alkaline batteries, enabling more compact and lower cost electrolysers.
” Today, installing an electrolyzer is like a custom petrochemical plant construction project – bespoke and costly. Our pre-assembled modules include the rest of the plant, avoiding the custom design and on-site construction that inflate the costs of hydrogen projects,” said Molly Yang, CEO of Hgen.
Hgen received early support from Breakthrough Energy Fellows to scale its technology from benchtop prototypes to industrial-scale demonstrations running at its Hawthorne facility, and the company is now focused on deploying its technology at customer sites.
Alexis Ohanian, founder and general partner at Seven Seven Six, said: ” Hgen has assembled a talented team from SpaceX and Tesla who have quickly developed complex technology that outperforms incumbents and is currently achieving breakthroughs in alkaline electrolysis.”
” Hgen’s accelerated growth is a testament to the superior capabilities of their technology and we are excited to support the company in this milestone,” said Catelyn Holloway, Founding Partner at Seven Seven Six.
Hgen is hiring in Los Angeles.
About Hgen:
Hgen produces clean hydrogen for the decarbonization of heavy industry. Our highly efficient alkaline electrolyzers convert water and electricity into clean hydrogen for use as a feedstock in industrial processes such as chemical and steel production. Learn more at www.hgen.com .
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